Intel Company has just announced new processors based on Prescott 2M core featuring 2M L2 cache memory. Besides that, these Pentium 4 CPUs also support Enhanced Memory 64 Technology and Enhanced Intel SpeedStep. Let’s find out if these architectural innovations will affect the situation in the processor market.

Final rendering

Final rendering process in 3ds max can effectively use multi-threading algorithms. Therefore, Pentium 4 CPUs supporting Hyper-Threading technology work here faster than AMD CPUs. Note though that during animation movie rendering instead of the static image, Athlon 64 CPUs appear somewhat faster. The top Athlon 64 FX-55 CPU manages to outperform even Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 3.73GHz, which has lost quite a bit of its power here because of the shift to a new Prescott 2M core from the older Gallatin.

The performance during final rendering in Lightwave is very dependent on the type of the image rendered. So, the leadership travels between AMD and Intel solutions in this test.

Also note that in any 3D rendering applications the L2 cache memory size doesn’t tell that much on the results. This is true for both: Pentium 4 6XX as well as Athlon 64 with 1MB L2 cache.

Moreover, keep in mind that in Lightwave Pentium 4 6XX processors lose to Pentium 4 5XX processors working at the same core frequency. This is most probably caused by slower L2 cache memory in the new Prescott 2M core.